New website for Village of Oak Park a notable upgrade

Birthing a new website is no easy task. So congratulations to the Village of Oak Park which last week unveiled its new digital port to all things village government. It is a vast improvement over its totally obsolete precursor. While there could be some bugs it feels mainly as if users simply need some time to grasp the structure and the depth of the site.

Already the site offers new digital tools for doing business with village hall – automating the parking pass process is a godsend. May this site be a precursor to Oak Park finally leaping into a technology upgrade across village hall that will make customer service more efficient and cost-effective.

Open data is the bedrock of open and transparent government, and there is absolutely nothing "ridiculous" about citizens requesting to see that data. Requesting a crime map is a fair request, especially if the government is already collecting this data anyway. Hopefully the new website was implemented in a way that makes providing data sets to taxpayers easier. To see what Chicago is doing, check out: https://data.cityofchicago.org/ We should expect more data from our govt, not less.

oP Rez

Posted: August 6th, 2013 9:01 PM

wanting to know where what types of crimes are happening, and how it's shifted over the years. "What are you smoking" tag line for the village must be; "pay more, expect less". I for one expect some basics, and valuable info should be expected.

oP Rez

Posted: August 6th, 2013 8:56 PM

Well, I DO feel entitled to basic information about the village, considering I DO pay high taxes, and crime IS a concern in the village. I am not asking for anything the village has not provided before. IF one paid attention to the old site, one would see that there were monthly crime maps dating back to around 2007. It would take little effort, and even less band width, for the village to post them. It has nothing to do with being a "detective", but it does provide valuable info to people

Bridgett from Oak Park

Posted: August 6th, 2013 7:33 PM

It's not uncommon for websites to house more than the current year's data. The Web can hold lots and lots of information. It is not like one needs to invest in physical place to house file cabinets full of paper. Thus, oP Rez' request is not at all outrageous, and quite reasonable.

what are you smoking?

Posted: August 6th, 2013 12:57 PM

Believe or not, the village already has people on payroll to keep track of annual trends. While I'm sure your efforts are appreciated they are not needed otherwise you'd have the job. They just got rid of a cluttered and junkie website and you ask them to post crime maps (which are created monthly) for the previous years for your personal analysis. You're no detective. My assumption is you're a resident that feels entitled to ridiculous requests of government because you're a tax payer.

oP Rez

Posted: August 6th, 2013 12:39 PM

Regarding the "crime map" section of the new site; It's nice that the months and days are now separated, but everything previous to 2013 has been deleted, so please can the village repost all their past data? It's a little hard to get a sense of annual trends when there is nothing to compare to.